Jesse Eisenberg

Unlike many young actors trying to build their careers, Jesse Eisenberg had the luxury of choosing artistically fulfilling roles while occasionally balancing higher-profile parts in major studio films...
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We've already discussed Easter Eggs in movies and the many ways filmmakers create in-jokes and references for savvy viewers and those in the know, but today we're taking a look at filmmakers referencing other filmmakers (or their stars...or themselves). We bet you'll never watch these movies the same way again.
Honoring Directors They Admire:
1. Star Wars in Star Trek
Paramount Pictures
It's no surprise that Super 8 director J. J. Abrams is a Star Wars fan, but we bet you never caught R2-D2's appearance in both Star Trek and Star Trek: Into Darkness. It looks like Star Wars: The Force Awakens won't be Abrams' first time with the Star Wars world.
Giving a Nod To Its Stars' Careers
2. Romy and Michele's High School Reunion's wink at Quentin Tarantino
Buena Vista Pictures
The comedy has a few subtle references to Quentin Tarantino's film universe. At the time, Mira Sorvino (Romy) was dating Tarantino. Thus, the keen eye can discern a Big Kahuna Burger take-out bag behind Michele's head in the scene where they pig out and decide to emulate top female executives. In one of the next scenes, an ad for Red Apple Cigarettes can be seen behind their car. Both of these brands were made up by Tarantino for his films. Red Apple cigarettes can be seen in films like Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Four Rooms, and From Dusk Til Dawn.
3. Bruce Willis' Favorite Song
20th Century Fox via Everett Collection
Die Hard With A Vengeance has a Pulp Fiction reference in it! Who knew? Bruce Willis' Pulp Fiction character, Butch, is driving around while "Flowers on the Wall" by the Statley Brothers plays on his radio and he sings along before running into Marsellus Wallace. Die Hard's John McClane exits a cab in the 1995 film with Samuel L. Jackson and references his time suspended by reciting the same lyrics from Pulp Fiction: "I was working on a nice fat suspension. Smokin cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo." Willis starred in Pulp Fiction with Jackson between Die Hard 2 and Die Hard With A Vengeance.
4. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas with Rango
sodahead.com
The beginning of Rango features the Johnny Depp-voiced reptile landing on the windshield of a convertible driven by none other than Duke and Gonzo from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Johnny Depp paying tribute to Johnny Depp.
5. Adam Brody in Mr. &amp; Mrs. Smith
20th Century Fox via Everett Collection
Okay, maybe everyone just really loves Fight Club and Brad Pitt, right? In the 2005 rom-com action movie, Seth Cohen plays the man they're both assigned to kill, which is how they realize they're both spies. The whole time, Brody is wearing a Fight Club t-shirt. It's pretty obvious whose side he's on.
6. Fight Club Starring Brad Pitt
20 Century Fox
Fight Club has a bunch of hidden gems in it, including advertisements for its main stars. Theater marquees within the movie advertise films starring Brad Pitt (Seven Years In Tibet), Edward Norton (The People Vs. Larry Flynt), and even Helena Bonham Carter (The Wings of the Dove, although it's obscured by a bus in the scene, so this is questionable).
Paying Homage To Themselves:
7. The Social Network's Tyler Durden
Columbia Pictures
Fight Club's director David Fincher has also been known to reference his own movies. In The Social Network, Jesse Eisenberg's Zuckerberg uses Facebook for help on an Art History assignment. The profile he's viewing? Tyler Durden's.
8. Charlie and The Chocolate Factory
Warner Bros.
In the Tim Burton adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic, Charlie's father works for Smilex toothpaste factory; this is a reference to the poison Joker unleashed on Gotham in the Burton-directed Batman by hiding it in their toothpaste. During a tour of the factory, Wonka walks by a room of pink sheep as he says, "I'd rather not talk about this one." While this may just seem like a way to accentuate his eccentricity, Burton's actually referencing his Ed Wood biopic, also starring Johnny Depp; director Ed Wood was a notorious cross-dresser with an affinity for pink wool. In other scenes throughout the movie, children in the Halloween flashback wear masks of Lock, Shock, and Barrel from The Nightmare Before Christmas and a door in the factory is marked "BeetleJuicing."
9. Before Sunrise/Waking Life/Dazed and Confused
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Oscar-nominated writer-director Richard Linklater's film worlds seem to intersect at times. Like when Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reprise their characters Jesse and Celine from Before Sunrise in the rotoscope dream movie Waking Life, which they then reference in Before Sunset. But there are subtler ways in which the films inhabit the same world: pinball. The same pinball machine can be found in at least three of Linklater's films: Waking Life, Before Sunrise, and Dazed and Confused.
10. Friends With Benefits picks up Easy A
Screen Gems
Director Will Gluck references his 2010 hit comedy Easy A in the totally-okay-but-not-as-successful 2011 film Friends With Benefits. The sign at the airport for an "O. Penderghast" alludes to Emma Stone's character in Easy A. Stone appears in both films and is flawless in both.
Paying Tribute To Other Directors:
11. Indiana Jones/Star Wars/E.T.
Paramount Pictures
R2-D2 makes another appearance - this time in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Spielberg paid tribute to Indiana Jones writer George Lucas by including hieroglyphics of the Star Wars droid in the 1981 film. Three years later, Spielberg did it again by naming a club in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom after Obi-Wan Kenobi.
12. E.T. in Star Wars
20th Century Fox
And then George Lucas thanks Steven Spielberg by featuring E.T. the Extra Terrestrial in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
13. Evil Dead 2/Nightmare on Elm Street
Paramount Pictures
Director Sam Raimi pays homage to Wes Craven in Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn by sneaking iconic slasher Freddy Krueger's glove in the background of a few scenes.
Paying Tribute To The Genre:
14. Scream
GIPHY/reddit.com
Scream is more jam-packed with references than most other movies. It's basically a two-hour homage to the horror genre entirely. The character Billy Loomis borrows his last name from Psycho's Sam Loomis before quoting Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates. The janitor outside Principal Himbry's office (played by director Wes Craven himself) is named Fred and wears Freddy Krueger's iconic striped shirt. The film is so saturated with in-jokes and references that it's pretty easy for even the most savvy viewers to miss Scream Queen Linda Blair's brief cameo. Take comfort in understanding the constant name-checking of other horror flicks.

Actor Jesse Eisenberg is adapting his series of short stories into a comedy programme for online retailer Amazon's streaming service Prime Instant Video. The Social Network star began writing Bream Gives Me the Hiccups for publishing website McSweeney's in 2012, running a total of 12 instalments until the end of 2013.
Now Eisenberg has struck a deal with bosses at Amazon to turn the series into a half-hour comedy, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Bream centres around a privileged nine-year-old restaurant critic who visits various eateries with his alcoholic mother.
The Oscar nominee will also executive produce and direct the project.

Winona Ryder and director Edgar Wright will be among the star-studded panel judging the competition at next year's (15) Sundance Film Festival. Ryder and Wright, along with True Detective director Cary Fukunaga, will preside over the U.S. Dramatic Jury competition, while Interstellar co-writer Jonathan Nolan and actress/writer Brit Marling are part of the jury for the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, which recognises science in film.
The jury members will vote on a number of films featuring stars including Viola Davis, James Franco, Jennifer Lopez, Ewan McGregor, Ryan Reynolds and Jesse Eisenberg.
The annual festival, which was founded by Robert Redford, runs from 22 January to 1 February (15) in Utah.

Boyhood star Ellar Coltrane is set to receive the Family award at the 19th Capri, Hollywood Film Festival later this month (Dec14). The actor at the centre of the acclaimed coming-of-age movie was plucked from obscurity aged six and was filmed over the course of 12 years, and now he's been chosen as the recipient of the Capri Family award at the annual festival in Italy.
The prize highlights exceptional films focused on the role of family in society, and the director of the festival, Pascal Vicedomini, praises Coltrane's work in the award-winning movie.
Vicedomini says in a statement: "Capri, Hollywood is more and more focusing attention to recognizing young movie stars. In past years we helped introduce such promising actors as Gerard Butler, Andrew Garfield, Michael Fassbender, Jesse Eisenberg and Freddie Highmore, to name a few, and this year we are highlighting Ellar Coltrane's talent."
Other actors set to be feted are British star Timothy Spall and director David O. Russell.
The Capri, Hollywood festival runs from 27 December (14) to 2 January (15).

Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin has apologised to Facebook.com founder Mark Zuckerberg for his depiction of the tech guru in The Social Network, insisting he was just trying to tell his story. The Moneyball writer won an Academy Award in 2011 for his screenplay for the film, which starred Jesse Eisenberg.
The movie centred on Zuckerberg as he developed the popular social networking site at college, but the boffin found the depiction "hurtful."
He said, "They just kind of made up a bunch of stuff that I found really hurtful. They made up this whole plot line about how I somehow decided to create Facebook to attract girls. The real story is a lot of hard work. If they were really making a movie (about the creation of Facebook)... it would be of me sitting there coding for two hours straight."
Sorkin explains he did not mean to upset Zuckerberg and was simply trying to tell the story of how the company was founded in as entertaining a fashion as he could.
He tells U.S. breakfast show Today, "I'm sorry that it did (hurt his feelings), I get it completely, I know I wouldn't want a movie made about the things that I did when I was 19 years old, so I get it. I didn't set out to hurt his feelings.
"There was a cool intellectual properties lawsuit, there was a origins story about this phenomenon of Facebook (that I wanted to explore)."

Singer/actor Jared Leto is reportedly in talks to play The Joker in upcoming supervillain film Suicide Squad. Ryan Gosling was initially approached about the part, but was unwilling to sign on for a multi-movie deal, according to TheWrap.com.
Tom Hardy and Will Smith are also rumoured to be in negotiations to join the cast, while The Wolf of Wall Street's Margot Robbie has reportedly signed on to play The Joker's girlfriend Harley Quinn, according to Collider.com.
Jesse Eisenberg will also reportedly make an appearance as his new Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice character Lex Luthor.
Fury's David Ayer will direct the movie, which will be based on the comic book series about a group of supervillains who are given a chance to redeem themselves in a deadly mission.
The film is slated to hit U.S. theatres on 5 August, 2016.

Facebook mogul Mark Zuckerberg has accused producers behind acclaimed movie The Social Network of hurting his feelings with their portrayal of him onscreen.
The tech entrepreneur was rumored to be unhappy with the film, which depicted his creation of the hugely popular social networking website during his time at Harvard University, and company bosses demanded a raft of changes before its release.
Zuckerberg, who was played by Jesse Eisenberg in an Oscar-nominated performance, has now spoken candidly about his issues with the movie, insisting he felt disappointed with the way he was depicted.
Speaking during a question and answer session with fans, he said, "They just kind of made up a bunch of stuff that I found really hurtful. They made up this whole plot line about how I somehow decided to create Facebook to attract girls. The real story is a lot of hard work. If they were really making a movie (about the creation of Facebook)... it would be of me sitting there coding for two hours straight."

Daniel Radcliffe's magical new role in the Now You See Me sequel has been confirmed, weeks after co-star Michael Caine let the big casting news slip during an interview.
The Harry Potter star will be back to his old tracks, alongside returning stars Caine, Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson and Dave Franco, according to a Lionsgate studio representative. It's not clear if Isla Fisher, who was recently reported to be pregnant with her third child, will be back for the new film.
Lizzy Caplan and Taiwanese superstar Jay Chou will also appear in the sequel, which will be directed by Jon M. Chu.

Batman's sidekick Robin is set for a sex change in the upcoming Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice movie, according to online reports. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire star Jena Malone has been cast in the pivotal role, according to a set insider, who has risked a huge fine from Warner Bros. executives for revealing the details to a Michigan TV news network.
The blockbuster, featuring Henry Cavill as Superman and Ben Affleck as Batman, is filming in Detroit and Malone has reportedly been spotted on the set.
Directed by Zack Snyder, the Man of Steel sequel will also feature Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa as Aquaman and Jesse Eisenberg as villain Lex Luthor, while Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne and Diane Lane will reprise their characters.

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe could be conjuring up some box office magic again as one of the stars of the Now You See Me sequel, according to Sir Michael Caine. Michael Caine let the news slip during a recent interview with website HeyUGuys, but didn't make it clear if he was serious about his fellow Brit playing his son in the film.
Caine said, "There’s a sequel to Now You See Me and we’re shooting in London. I shoot in December... and my son is Harry Potter. I thought it’d be funny, me and Daniel Radcliffe as father and son."
Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo and Woody Harrelson will reprise their characters for the sequel, but it still isn't clear if Isla Fisher will be a part of the project after recent reports suggested she had pulled out of the film after falling pregnant with her third child.

Title

Made his Broadway debut as an understudy in a revival of "Summer and Smoke"

Joined an ensemble cast for "Adventureland"; directed by Greg Mottola

Cast as Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg in "The Social Network," directed by David Fincher and scripted by Aaron Sorkin

Played Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney’s eldest son in Noah Baumbach’s "The Squid and the Whale"

First TV role was on the FOX series, "Get Real"

Played a student in Kevin Kline’s prep-school class in "The Emperor's Club"

Featured in the hit action/comedy movie "Now You See Me"

Co-starred in the Wes craven directed horror film, "Cursed"

Became a member of the popular youth singing group, The Broadway Kids

Voiced Blu, a Blue Spix's Macaw, in the computer-animated film, "Rio"

Directed by Woody Allen in the romantic comedy "To Rome with Love"

First lead role was in the independent comedy, "Roger Dodger"

Starred in the Fred Durst directed "The Education of Charlie Banks"

Summary

Unlike many young actors trying to build their careers, Jesse Eisenberg had the luxury of choosing artistically fulfilling roles while occasionally balancing higher-profile parts in major studio films. Though he made his first onscreen strides on television, Eisenberg made a distinct impression as a teenager who is looking to become a man in the indie drama "Roger Dodger" (2002). While he was lost in the shuffle of M. Night Shyamalan's "The Village" (2004), he earned strong critical praise for his performance in "The Squid and the Whale" (2005), a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age drama directed by Noah Baumbach. Following major supporting roles in "Cursed" (2005) and "The Hunting Party" (2007), Eisenberg had his mainstream breakout with a starring role as a nebbish survivor of the zombie apocalypse in the surprise horror comedy hit, "Zombieland" (2009) as well as his critically lauded performance as Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, in David Fincher's brilliant drama "The Social Network" (2010). Thanks to the success of both movies, Eisenberg established himself as a talented and accomplished performer on the cusp of becoming a major star.

Born Aug. 2, 1992; starred in a series of Pepsi commercials and films such as "The Insider" (1999) and "Bicentennial Man" (1999)

Amy Eisenberg

Mother

Kerri Eisenberg

Sister

Education

Name

East Brunswick High School

The New School

Notes

In November 2011, Eisenberg filed a lawsuit against Lionsgate and Grindstone Entertainment for allegedly promoting his less-than-five-minute cameo in the horror film "Camp Hell" as an above-the-title star turn, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The actor, who was reportedly paid $3,000 to appear in the film, demanded $3 million in damages for false advertising and violation of his right of publicity.